5 piece wedding dress

i first learned about morgane le fay when i moved to new york in 2007. i would take coffee breaks at their old lofty location on wooster street (now a stunning celine store) and gaze at the ethereal fairy-like garments and say to myself, "if i ever get married, i have to wear morgane le fay."

the challenge: i wanted a "transformer dress"—something unique and comfortable that i could style differently throughout the night, without buying separate dresses for the ceremony, reception, etc. the ability to re-wear pieces of the dress later on would be a plus.

in the end, my dress was a series of 5 pieces: 3 untouched, 1 redesign, 1 custom. some process shots below:

1 tea length dress. the original design is shown above—this is the piece that i redesigned.

1 ankle-length skirt

1 petticoat worn under the long skirt, to create a bit of airy volume

the great thing is that morgane le fay often creates a range of garments using the same fabric so color matching was not an issue. no boning (yay breathing and eating!), no synthetic fabrics—all 100% silk hand made in new york.

the straps get thinner, and the back gets deeper...

after a trip to mood fabrics, a silk ribbon-style belt is sewn by my alterationist. (tip: i took scraps from the dress to match the fabric. even if you're a color nerd like me, a reference is always necessary.)

since it was a winter wedding, i wanted a cropped white jacket to go with the dress. i found it impossible to find the right one and gave up several weeks before the wedding—until just a few days before the big day, my mom whips out this blazer! "thought this might work," she says. it also happened to be the same designer as paul's suit so it was perfect! hugo boss ftw.

and finally, i ended up shrinking between the last fitting and the wedding day, so (again, just a couple of days before the wedding) my mom took leftover fabric from the belt and created a sheer layer to the front of the dress so the cut wasn't so deep. mom's are simply the best.

my birdcage veil was my final DIY project for the wedding—made in the morning during hair and makeup!

the belt may have been my favorite part of the dress. smaller loops allowed for a longer train during the ceremony, while bigger loops prevented me and my groom from tripping on ourselves during our first dance!

for the reception, the jacket primarily stayed off and eventually the long skirt came off as well when i changed out to the nikes for party time. i think eventually my belt ended up on a high boy, too, but who can remember! started with 3 pieces, and ended up with 2. transformer dress complete!

unfortunately i don't have any professional shots of the tea length dress + petticoat with my nikes, but super duper thankful to my gf boai for sending me this shot from my drunken dougie moment. :)